“We use it on fish,” chef Peter X. Kelly said, when shown a leafy amaranth plant in the organic garden at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor. “Lightly cooked,” said Kelly, the owner of Xaviars Restaurant Group, which operates four restaurants in Westchester and Rockland counties.
In an immaculate white chef”™s coat, he was dressed for the kitchen ”” and for the cameras that followed him on his July 21 appearance at the hospital.
The well-known chef has brought his name and network of contacts in the area”™s restaurant industry to the service of Hudson Valley Hospital Center. He appeared with U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat from Harrison and ranking member on the House appropriations committee, and their host, Hudson Valley Hospital Center President John C. Federspiel, to formally open the Chef Peter X. Kelly Teaching Kitchen at Dempsey House, a converted farmhouse on hospital property.
The teaching kitchen and nearby organic garden are part of Healthy Harvest, a 2-year-old initiative by hospital staff to teach patients and members of the community to better manage their health and thereby reduce health care costs with changes in diet and lifestyle. The prevention initiative also includes a twice-weekly farmers market and an institutional food-service contractor that aims to source one-fifth of the hospital”™s produce and other foods from distributors, farms and artisanal businesses in the region.
Still a fledgling enterprise, the farm-to-hospital food chain snagged this summer when the hospital”™s food service contractor dropped a produce distributor in the Hudson Valley and replaced it with one in Hartford, Conn., as local supplier.
The hospital garden, where cancer patients and their families are encouraged to visit and work and share in its bounty, opened in 2012, said hospital spokeswoman Victoria Hochman. “It was a lot of community effort,” she said. “The kitchen finally caught up with it.”
Designed free of charge by Joseph Pallante, an architect specializing in health care facilities and principal of Pallante Design L.L.C. in Newark, N.J., the teaching kitchen is used by classes that offer general instruction and specific cooking lessons for diabetics, cancer and heart patients, breastfeeding mothers and persons with gluten sensitivities. Kelly at the official opening was joined by five members of the hospital”™s Young Chefs of the Hudson Valley, a program for at-risk middle school students to replace bad eating habits with healthy ones through cooking classes and gardening.
“The basic idea here,” said Lowey, “is to keep people out of the hospital. ”¦ The way you save money in health care is by keeping people healthy.”
Federspiel said planning for the teaching kitchen began before Hurricane Sandy ravaged the region with flooding and prolonged power outages. “The hurricane created chaos for him,” he said of Kelly, “but he never missed a planning meeting despite huge challenges in his commercial operations.”
“As one of 12 children,” Kelly told an audience of hospital volunteers and staff, “I understand very well the importance of eating well ”” when you can.”
Kelly has recruited several noted colleagues in the restaurant industry for a Signature Chefs Series at the teaching kitchen. Each will host a seasonal dinner that will be auctioned and privately prepared for the highest bidder.
“The money raised here will sustain this facility and keep these programs open,” Kelly said.
The roster of chefs includes Waldy Malauf of the Culinary Institute of America; Ethan Kostbar, executive chef at Moderne Barn in Armonk; David Dibari, owner of The Cookery in Dobbs Ferry; Eric Gabrynowicz, co-owner of Restaurant North in Armonk, and Anthony Goncalves, chef-owner of 42 in White Plains.
Pursuing its Healthy Harvest initiative, the hospital in 2013 announced its new partnership with Cura Hospitality, a food service vendor in Pittsburgh that manages dining services at more than 50 senior living communities and hospitals in the mid-Atlantic region. The company is part of the Eat ”™N Park Hospitality Group.
Jamie Moore, Cura”™s director of sourcing and sustainability, said the company”™s goal is to source 20 percent of its clients”™ food supply locally. Moore noted produce is considered local if it comes from growers within 150 miles of Cura”™s distributors. Dairy products come from farms within 150 miles of the milk processing facility, while meat comes from producers within a five-hour drive of the processing plant.
Moore said products are also supplied by vendors at the Hudson Valley Hospital Center”™s farmers markets. The hospital”™s ice cream comes from Gillette Creamery in Ulster County and Rockland Bakery in Nanuet supplies bread. Continental Organics in New Windsor trucks organic vegetables.
Moore said Cura recently stopped doing business with its chief local produce supplier, Red Barn Produce Inc. in Ulster County, because of “inconsistency with products. We don”™t make changes to suppliers unless we have some issues with them.”
The hospital”™s new local produce distributor is FreshPoint Inc. in Hartford.
I don’t understand what changing produce venders has to do with opening a teaching kitchen. Also, why did an article that started out so positive turn into a bash session against a produce vendor. I understand you want quality produce but again what did this have to do with the opening of this teaching kitchen. It really wasn’t necessary.